Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe Tuesday resigned, forestalling a motion of impeachment against him.

Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda announced the embattled leader had opted to resign, throwing the nation into a celebration.

Parliament had earlier on Tuesday began impeachment proceedings against President Mugabe as pressure mounted on the veteran ruler to relinquish power.

President Mugabe has been under house arrest since November 14 when the military seized control of government.

Street protests and an internal revolt in the ruling Zanu-PF party left the 93-year-old ruler fighting for political survival with long-time allies switching allegiances to ousted Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mr Mudenda told MPs on Tuesday that the motion to remove President Mugabe was “unprecedented in the history of Zimbabwe”.

“The people of Zimbabwe have for a long time been subjected to untold suffering as a result of poor governance under your leadership,” he wrote in the letter posted on the government’s social media platforms

“It is, therefore, my conviction that by vacating the presidency, this will usher in a new political dispensation that will pave the way for the much needed socio-economic recovery in Zimbabwe.”

President Mugabe also suffered further humiliation on Tuesday when only three ministers turned up for a Cabinet meeting.

Most of his loyalists were in hiding following the military crackdown and those that remain were part of a Zanu-PF meeting on Sunday that voted to fire him from the leadership of the party.